Labour Bureau released the All India Consumer Price Index Numbers for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) for the month of July 2012. The index now stands at 212, an increase by four points from the last month. The increase is 1.92% between June and July which is less when compared with 2.12% last year same time.

The increase by four points is due to the increase in the food prices which went up by 2.38 per cent, contributing 2.44 percentage points to the total change. The highest increase was in the prices of Rice, Arhar Dal, Green-chilly, Onion, vegetables, mainly Potato and Tomato, and Sugar. There were come relief as the decrease in prices of French Bean, Brinjal, and Poultry (Chicken).

The CPI-IW will be used for the calculation of the Dearness allowance for Central Government employees and Pensioners. It will be too early to predict the DA expected from January 2013, as the calculation involves the index figures for the previous 12 months, i.e. index from January 2012 to December 2012. Even if only 7 of 12 indices are available currently, for illustration, it can be assumed that in-case of index remaining constant at 212 over next 5 months, the DA will be 79% from January 2013